


Frogs

by Zoya113



Category: The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals - Team StarKid
Genre: F/F, F/M, Father figure hidgens, Hidgens and Paul are very patient w Emma, I am shitposting, Just kids being kids, ft Emma still doesn’t know the Krebs cycle but that’s an old joke, fun bio facts that disturb me, gremlin core girl, has been so long since I’ve written Hidgens but he is back
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-29
Updated: 2020-04-29
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:47:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23909458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zoya113/pseuds/Zoya113
Summary: Emma is up late studying when she finds three teens in her flower garden. Turns out they are there for a much more valid reason than she thought
Relationships: Deb/ Alice (mentioned), Emma Perkins & Henry Hidgens, Emma Perkins/ Paul Matthews
Comments: 14
Kudos: 96





	Frogs

**Author's Note:**

> I came up w this idea after some discussion w ourfandomcrazyuniverse so props to them ahaha here’s frog catcher emma

When Paul stopped replying to her biology facts texts she had figured he had finally gone to sleep. That did not stop her from texting him though, she had to say. The fact someone out there names a layer of the brain ‘arachnoid matter’ was a sin that could not be over looked. Someone had to know, and Hidgens just wouldn’t get how weird that was. 

“I got spiders in my brain,” she mumbled to herself as she readjusted herself on the couch. It was nearing three in the morning, and she wanted to fall asleep but she had this reading to get through. She wasn’t actually paying attention, but it was way too hard to fall asleep knowing there was work she hadn’t at least tried at. 

On the bright side, Paul would have a bunch of fun biology facts to wake up to. 

“Okay, let’s see,” she had to keep mumbling to draw herself back to the page at hand to stop her mind wandering. 

It was certainly late, but not late enough for Emma to distinguish her own mumbling from another voices. She tipped her head back to see if she had accidentally woken up Paul, but he was no where to be seen. 

She closed her textbook. She had definitely just heard someone talking. She listened out, pursing her own lips shut to ensure she wasn’t just talking to herself, but there it was again, followed by a sharp hiss of ‘shh!’ 

She stood up, sneaking silently over towards the window sill. She kept the lights off, stepping over where she knew the creaky floorboard was. 

Emma drew back the curtains, and surely enough there were three shapes knelt over in her flower bed. Oh my god, if someone was going to rob them did they really have to step in her plants? She had spent so long looking after them! She stormed over to the front door, swinging it open. 

Almost instantly the shapes flew back from the garden, scrambling to their feet, knocking into each other. They looked like they were about to bolt so Emma cleared her throat. 

“In my petunias? Really?” She grunted. 

“Sorry!” Came one voice. It sounded young, not the sort of voice she expected from a potential thief. 

“We didn’t meant to ruin your flowers or   
anything!” A second voice apologised. 

Emma rubbed her eyes. “But you meant to rob me or?” 

“Well we haven’t robbed you!”

“Yet?”

“No! I’m sorry! We weren’t- oh my god. Danny, shut up!” One of the smaller figures shoved the bigger one. “This is so hard to explain, it’s gonna sound so weird, but we were looking for frogs.” 

A tense silence followed. They clearly didn’t expect her to believe them. 

“Wait, so you were trying to steal my frogs?” Her jaw dropped. 

The figure in the middle who she assumed was the leader spluttered. “No! What? We were just looking for them, oh my god ma’am. I’m so sorry we woke you. We should head off, uh, sorry about your flowers.” 

Emma stretched out her hand to flick on the front light before they could leave, and the three of them froze like rabbit in headlights. “Ah, well look who it is. The infamous Hatchetfield high smoke club.” 

“Oh, hey. You’re Paul’s girlfriend! The barista!” That was Deb she was fairly sure, not because she had ever met her, but that was the name she got with her coffee. Not to mention Nora spoke to her quite a bit, slipped her free pastries if she was on counter. Maybe they were related. That made the tall one Danny, and the short one with the mud on her knees? Emma didn’t know her name. 

“You’re looking for frogs?” Emma changed topics instead. “In the petunias?” 

“Yeah, well. You just have such a big garden n’ we wanted to find a frog to hold,” the short one said. 

Danny shoved her. “You sound so stupid, Sof! Sorry ma’am. I know that sounds weird but Sof and Deb just really like frogs.”

“Oh no,” Emma shook her head. “That’s not the weird part. I’m more confused about why’d you think you’d find them in my front garden!” She snorted. “You know the big house on the outskirts of town? Big gates, fall fences?” 

They nodded, unsure where she was going with this. 

“That’s the best place for frog finding. Come on. You wanna see some good frogs? I’ll take you.” She snatched the keys up off the hook on the wall, pulling on the shoes she had kicked off after work and locking the door. “Come on. I’ll drive you.”

“Huh?” Sof paled. 

“Uh, it’s not that serious ma’am. We’ll just go home.” They were all backing up, knocking into each other whenever someone stepped too slowly. 

“Hey! I’m not gonna kidnap you. But you’ve got me thinking about frogs, I used to look for the same all the time. We’re in peak frog finding hours right now kids.” She unlocked the car door. “Now who’s gonna be cool and come with me and who’s a coward? Because my bets are on the tall kid.”

“Hah!” Sof slapped Danny’s shoulder, hurrying over to Emma’s car. “I’ll come! Shotgun!” 

“Sof!” Danny’s jaw dropped. 

“What? We can trust her right? I thought she was Alice’s friend or something.” Sof pulled open the passenger seat door, slipping in. 

“Eh, Alice’s dad’s friend’s girlfriend. Don’t trust me too much. If I find the biggest frog I’m not sharing,” she made a so-so gesture with her hand. “Deb? You’ve always been the cool one right? Wanna tag along?” She leant over the open door. It was that perfect hour where the air was all fresh, it smelt like petrichor and just ever so faintly of wood fire smoke. It wasn’t too cold, just cold enough to cool her down after being cramped up on the couch studying. 

“Okay. Yeah. But I’m texting Alice so she knows who I’m with.” 

“All good. We can bring her back a frog too,” Emma gave a thumbs up. She missed being this young. “Danny? What about you?”

The kid stood frozen in her garden, a slight shake of his head. 

“You either ride back seat or miss out on frogs all together. Both are sort of a loss at this point but at least if you find a cool frog they can’t make fun of you too much.” 

He didn’t seem convinced. Clearly he was not in it for the frogs. 

“Hey. Kid. You’re kind of a loser anyways so I’m gonna take these cool girls and get going,” she shrugged, sitting down in the front seat of her car. 

“Okay! Okay, I’ll come!” He hurried to the car as if he thought she’d leave him behind. 

“Now that’s more like it,” she cackled, closing her car door and remembering her seatbelt to be a good example for the kids. “Now, I’m telling you,” she began as she started up the car. “This is the frog hotspot. There’s like a pond there where they lay their eggs, and it’s kinda swampy in a corner of the front yard. They are everywhere, you can hear them.”

“Man, you like frogs,” Danny noted.

She nodded. “Obviously man. They’re fucking cool.” She elbowed Sof, who she had deemed the coolest, “listen to this loser.” 

“There’s something inherently sapphic about frogs, Danny. You wouldn’t get it. It’s a gay people thing.” 

“I’m literally not straight, but go off. I just don’t get frogs. They’re slimy, it’s weird!”

“Ugh, oh my god I know right!?” Emma had not gone frog searching in a while, and how she missed it. These were some cool kids. “Hey. It’s not a long drive but you guys wanna hear some really fuckin’ weird biology facts?” Usually she saved them for Paul but he was asleep, so, his loss. 

“Oh hell yeah. Danny and I have this bio test on Tuesday, tell us,” Deb leant forward, resting an elbow on the passenger seat to poke her head into the front seats. 

“Oh, what on?” She asked. 

Danny and Deb exchanged a look that insisted neither of them actually quite knew. “ATP? Glycolysis, transport chain, krebs.” 

“Ooop.” She tapped a hand to the steering wheel. “Nope. You’re on your own. ATP is fucked. Making energy is my mitochondria’s business, not mine.” She indicated to turn despite the roads being completely empty this late at night. “Oh. Glycolysis is in the cytosol though. Do as I say not as I do.” 

“Man, I don’t have a clue what you just said,” Sof snorted. “Tell me a creepy biology fact.”

“Oh, okay. This is my favourite. Bones are mix and match.” That was Paul’s least favourite.

“They’re what?” Deb gaped. 

“Yeah!” Emma confirmed. “Bones grow differently in everyone depending on your body, so they get classified differently all the time. Like, some people have more kneecap bones or something. It’s fucked.” 

Deb let out a laugh. “You are not who I thought you’d be,” she admitted. “Because I mean, Alice is a sweetheart, I love her. And Bill is just as kind, and I met Paul once and he’s just like them. You think he’d date someone like him.” 

“Oh yeah, because you and Alice are so similar,” Danny thwacked Deb’s shoulder. 

Deb didn’t even bother with an argument or a defence to her statement. “Whatever. I probably have cooler bones than you dickhead.” 

Emma grinned. “Well Paul and I are nothing alike, but it’s way too late for him to change his mind about us.” She changed speeds as they got closer to their final destination. “So don’t start giving him ideas, kid.” She squinted to try and get a better look out the dark, front window of the car for her usual parking spot on the grass. She couldn’t pull in with the front gates closed. “Here we are.” 

Sof glanced outside. “So how long has it been since you stopped looking for frogs? Was that like, an actual hobby? We were just kinda doing it spontaneously.” 

Emma got out, locking the door as the others slid out. “Oh. A couple months back I had to call it quits. No one enjoyed it when I brought them inside caus all my friends are losers clearly.” She pulled out her phone for the flashlight, and the other three followed. “Hear that?”

It was croaking. 

“Oh my god,” Deb chuckled. “There’s actually frogs here.” She started looking out for them, kneeling down to search through the grass. 

“Nah, nah, you won’t find them here. Follow me.” There was a kink in the fence a couple metres down, and she had always been able to slip right through. 

“Wait, we’re going in?” Deb didn’t cross through, even when Emma was stepping through. 

“Oh yeah. Of course. That’s where the pond is!” The metal bars were cold on her skin, still dewy from rain. “Follow me.”

“Isn’t that’s illegal?” Danny asked.

Emma scoffed, rolling her eyes. “I just found you in my front garden ten minutes ago. I have a feeling this’ll be the least illegal thing you lot have done in a while. Trust me, you won’t get in trouble if you’re with me.” She stepped through whether they were following or not. She had frogs to find. 

“Oh, ugh. Okay,” Sof followed after her, not wanting to seem like the ‘loser’ of the trio. “Just be quiet, Danny.”

“Why just me!?” He gasped. 

“Shut it!” Deb elbowed him, pushing him to get through the gap first. “She just told you to keep your voice down,” she teased. 

Emma slowed down her steps so she wouldn’t slip in the mud. Her flats were not her boots, she had to be careful. She turned off her torch, she knew the way to the pond. She could follow the sound of the croaking too. It was getting so loud, it was magnificent. 

The kids had fallen silent behind her, definitely not expecting to break the law tonight, not like this anyways. They must’ve thought she was a madman. 

“Shhh,” she hushed them so the frogs wouldn’t hear. 

Deb had a hand over her flashlight, sticking closely to Emma’s side. “Where are they?” 

Emma started to crouch down, moving ever so slowly. When she was on her knees she reached out a hand into the plants lining the pond, running her hands over the wet leaves until the croaking came to a halt. She squinted. “Shine your light here, kid.” 

Sof obeyed, shining her torch over Emma’s hand. 

There it was. She snatched out a hand, grabbing it and drawing it back. “Look!” She exclaimed. 

“Shh!” Deb snapped out of panic. 

Emma shook her head. “It’s okay, it’s fine. Look at this guy!” She let the big, brown frog sit on her fingers. “Here’s one, you wanna hold him Deb? I’ll get another.”

“Let me!” Sof held out her hands and Emma let the frog hop off onto Sof’s wrist. “Oh!” She squeaked, probably not expecting the texture. 

“Don’t squeeze him,” Emma warmed as she hunted down another frog for Deb. 

“Ma’am, do you think maybe we should leave? What if the people who live here wake up?” Deb suggested as Sof held out her frog to Danny who took a large step back. 

Emma snorted. “Oh, he’s not asleep. That’s why we should keep our voices down.” 

“Huh!?” Deb slapped her free hand to her mouth. “We should leave then! We’re in private property, there are fences!” 

Emma shrugged, feeling a frog hop onto her hand. She pulled it out from the bush. “We won’t get in trouble, promise.” 

“Sof! Dumbass! Don’t put that thing near me!” Danny hissed as Sof stuck her hand up near Danny’s shoulders to try and get the frog to hop off onto his skin. 

Sof let out a chaotic laugh, chasing after Danny. 

“Guys! Shh!” Deb tried desperately, and also in vain. 

“Careful! It’s muddy!” Emma warned, but they hadn’t heard over Sof’s laugh, and she was the first to slip. 

She hit the ground and the frog hopped off, a laugh escaped Danny no matter how hard he was trying to be quiet, he leant back and threw off his balance, toppling down besides Sof and laughing too hard to even think about getting up. Now Sof was laughing too, and even Deb had to let out a snort before she tried to get them to shut up again. 

And that’s when the floodlights turned on. Hidgens’ ridiculously bright front lights, shining a blinding white light over the whole garden. Deb actually looked like she was going to vomit until Emma got up with a sheepish laugh, raising a hand to wave to the front door where she knew Hidgens would have to have been to turn the lights on. 

“We should run,” Deb paled. 

“Nah, nah. Come on,” Emma beckoned then after her as she headed over to the front door. “I’ll get you some towels. I’m not letting you into my car when you’re covered in mud.” 

The front door opened when Emma was only a few steps away, and Hidgens not-so-pleased face met hers. 

“Hey professor.”

“Good morning, Emma. Do you know what time it is?” He asked. 

“Hey. That’s rich for someone who’s still up themself, can we come in?” She gestured to the kids over her shoulder. 

He nodded. “Well obviously I’m going to need an explanation as to why you’re in my garden at 3am. You should be asleep!” 

Deb blinked. “That’s the least troublesome thing about this.” She kicked off her muddy docs, cautiously following Emma inside, the other two behind her.

Hidgens flicked on the lights, gesturing to the couch as he went to go fetch some towels. “You didn’t tell me you were coming over!”

“You know this guy?” Deb asked as he vanished into the bathroom to search. 

“Yeah. This is my biology professor, but he’s kinda my best friend. Just don’t tell him we were-“ she was cut off when Hidgens returned, handing some wet towels to Danny and Sof to wipe off the mud. 

“What are you doing up a late?” He asked. 

“She told us we could come here,” Danny started in his defence. “She was showing us where the frogs were.”

And just like that Hidgens’ tolerance seemed to vanish. “Emma.”

“Ugh, Danny! You really are the weak link, snitch!” She didn’t actually know much about Danny, but the group dynamic did seem to be centred on bullying him anytime he wasn’t bullying them. 

“Emma, do I need to call Paul? We are not doing this again!” 

“I wasn’t getting them for myself, Hidgens! I was just showing them where the good spots where! Look! I haven’t even brought any inside!” She protected herself, her cool exterior totally dropping to explain herself in a whine. 

“You better not think about starting this craze again, I cannot handle it. Do you want me to call Paul?” 

“No, no, don’t!” She shook her head. 

Hidgens let out a sigh, taking a seat at the end of the couch away from Emma. “Just raising a new generation of kids to traumatise their parents are you?” 

“That’s accusing! We don’t know what they wanted with those frogs!” 

“I just wanted to feel one,” Sof promised as she wiped her hands. “They feel so weird. I love it.” 

Hidgens growled. “Don’t even remind me! Emma used to bring them inside all the time. And then she’d just forgot about it! I’d find them in the sink, in the shower, once I found one in my bed!” He scolded, grazing his knuckles over Emma’s shoulders warningly. 

“I just got distracted!” She groaned. “I never left them there on purpose!”

“I really thought you dropped that habit, Emma dear.”

“Ooh,” Sof cooed. “Family drama. Front seats.” 

Emma ran her hair through her fingers, tugging at it lightly. “I’ve done it since I was a kid,” she explained to the teens. “It’s just like patting dogs you see on the street for me. I love finding them.” 

“Yes, well, it had to stop eventually,” Hidgens continued the story. “We had to cut it out before she moved in with her partner. It’s almost an addiction.” He turned to her. “If you promise me you won’t do this again I won’t tell Paul.” 

“Please, oh, please don’t tell Paul!” He would not like that. He wouldn’t hold her hand for like a month, and not that she was big on being a sap but she liked holding his hand. “I won’t. I was just- I was showing the kids. Harmless fun.” 

“Hey,” Deb cut in, rubbing her neck. “When you said you decided to stop frog hunting...” 

“Uh, yeah.” Emma gave a guilty laugh, “I wasn’t being entirely honest. It wasn’t a decision, I was kind of banned from it. It was a problem.”

“What other girl out there has such a fixation on frogs she has to be banned?” Hidgens huffed, at least there was a fond hint to his tone. “Can you even believe that?” 

They went from a causal frog search to breaking the law that evening. Was that a usual Sunday evening for this girl? Deb gave her a look that was mirrored by her friends. From all they had learnt about their brief interaction with their friend’s dad’s friend’s girlfriend, that was not the least bit surprising.


End file.
